The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois My rating: 4 of 5 stars I read this during the George Zimmerman trial for his shooting of Trayvon Martin. What disappoints me while reading this book is how the central problems of that time still somewhat exist. Sure, the overall is much better. But this…
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones My rating: 4 of 5 stars I enjoy Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli movies. I first saw the movie on video and again recently during a Studio Ghibli series by the local independent movie theater. So when my Kindle showed an advertisement to buy this book for $1.99,…
The American: A Special Edition of A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth My rating: 4 of 5 stars As a fairly private person, I identified pretty well with this quote on page 16. Not so much in a truly dangerous sense but in a I am not very good with people sense. Pretty sure…
Seven Viking Romances by Hermann Pálsson My rating: 4 of 5 stars A couple girls gave me funny looks and asked about “Romance†in the title. So I explained this is romance as in heroic sagas of mighty warriors committing supernatural deeds. (Okay, so I glossed over these same warriors impregnating every woman in their path.) Not muscular…
She asked what I was reading. So I told her Dust of Dreams and showed her the book. She said I am smart. This launches into a weird conversation culminating in the question. She asked, “Is it weird I watch the movie before reading the book?” A little over a year ago a friend asked me the…
To the right is a photo of my to-read stack of books at the time. I noticed the March 19, 2008Â date, and thought it would be interesting to see how many of them I have read in the years since. I count 80 visible books. I think I have read 47 of them. Of course,…
Single & Happy: The Party of Ones by J. Victoria Sanders My rating: 4 of 5 stars Back in late 2011, I ran across the Single & Happy blog. WordPress.com had drawn me in, but I started looking at various tags including dating. Lots were people talking about current dates and especially the horror that is online dating web sites.…
The reading challenge renewed my interest in Goodreads. Before they started them a couple years ago, I had already started tracking them here on this blog. I just was not very consistent about it. Goodreads became a good place to make links to direct people looking for more information about the book. But it meant…
Today is the last day of the year, so where am I with those 2012 goals? Reading goals should be at 100%: Complete unfinished novel series. 23.1 of 28 done or 82.5%. So I missed. American History and Decision Making. 10 of 10 done or 100%. So done. Science. 13 of 13 done or 100%. So done. Read 50 books. I have read…